Free fall continues for UNH men’s hoop

DURHAM — The downward spiral of the University of New Hampshire men’s basketball team’s season continued on Saturday afternoon.

UNH dropped its eighth straight game at the hands of Boston University, 69-59, inside Lundholm Gymnasium in Durham. The Wildcats remain winless in America East (0-5) and fell to 4-13 overall. Their last win came on Dec. 8, a 64-56 victory over Yale.

“We’re obviously in a bad stretch and we’re not in a good place right now,” UNH coach Bill Herrion said. “You can tell when your team is playing really hard and competing by your defensive intensity. We’ve always had defensive intensity here at UNH, and you’re not going to win many games when you allow somebody to come into your gym and shoot 53 percent from the floor. Our defensive effort was poor.”

Junior forward Dom Morris led the way for BU with a game-high 18 points, while freshman point guard Maurice Watson, Jr. added 13. The Terriers (9-10 overall, 3-3 in AE) made 25-of-47 shots from the floor, including half of their 3-point attempts (8-for-16). It was the most 3-pointers the Wildcats have allowed in a game this season.

“It was a great bounce-back game for us; we obviously got drilled earlier this week,” BU coach Joe Jones said, referring to Tuesday’s 75-48 loss to Stony Brook. “I was really interested to see how we would respond today and I thought we did a good job of that coming on the road. I thought we had good energy from the start and that really got us going.”

The Terriers led 31-24 at halftime and stretched their lead to 37-26 early in the second half following a dunk by Malik Thomas. UNH closed to within 37-30 after a Myrick layup, but BU responded with a Morris jumper and a 3-pointer by Thomas for a 42-30 advantage with 15:27 left in the game.

Back-to-back 3-pointers by Travis Robinson and D.J. Irving extended BU’s lead to 48-32, and the Wildcats responded with a 13-4 run. A free throw by Rhoads closed the gap to 52-45 with 6:52 remaining.

But every time the Wildcats seemed to be making their move, the Terriers had an answer via the 3-pointer. After Konan missed a layup, BU raced down the floor and Watson, Jr. drilled a 3-pointer to give the Terriers a 10-point cushion. A 3-pointer by Robinson was the dagger that put UNH in a 61-47 hole with 4:36 left.

“We’re a good 3-point shooting team and when we get our feet set, we’re pretty good,” Jones said. “Tonight we were able to do that. This reminds me of a lot of our earlier games when we had a lot of guys contribute. We do a pretty good job sharing the ball and the zone allows us to do a better job of allowing us to do that.”

“We couldn’t guard them in a man and we knew the ball screens were coming at us all game and we just did a poor job defensively with the ball screens,” Herrion said. “I thought it took them out of their pace when we played zone, but anytime we made a little bit of a run, we’d miss a defensive rotation and they’d hit a three.”

Conversely, the Wildcats shot 3-for-19 from beyond the arc, including a 2-for-11 effort in the first half. UNH shot 37 percent from the floor on the night (21-for-57).

“I think we have to have better patience and better shot selection,” Herrion said. “We have to understand that if certain guys aren’t shooting the three well, we have to give up the three and we certainly have to drive the ball more and put it on the floor. We’re not a good shooting team and the scouting report is out on us, obviously.”

Konan said that the losing is starting to weigh on the team.

“I really don’t know what to say, it’s pretty tough right now,” he said. “I thought we got some stops tonight but they’d get the rebound and second shots killed us. We tried to come back, but they were making shots, too.”

UNH will look to break its losing streak on Thursday when its hosts Hartford. The Wildcats then hit the road next Saturday against Binghamton.

“When you’re in our situation and you’re in a long losing streak, spirits aren’t real high and that’s when you have to fight even harder,” Herrion said. “Right now we just don’t have the fight at this moment.”

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On the women’s side, BU was a 55-53 winner over the Wildcats at Lundholm.

Cari Reed recorded game-highs in points (22) and rebounds (13) for UNH, which is now 4-3 at home, 6-11 overall and 1-4 in America East. BU won its 13th consecutive game to improve to 16-3, 6-0.